Category: Guild of All Arts

“The story of Guild of All Arts artist, Elizabeth Fraser Williamson, is told in this conversation between the late artist’s daughter, Sara, and John Mason, President of Friends of Guild Park

This six-minute video was recorded at the 2018 Guild Alive with Culture Arts Festival at Guild Park. During the chat, Sara Williamson holds one of her mother’s charming sculptures. It’s entitled “Thoughtful Scratch” and depicts a bear in a quizical pose.

This bear figure was among the works that Elizabeth Fraser Williamson, loaned to schools throughout Scaborough to enhance students’ appreciation of art.

Elizabeth Fraser Williamson was the last professional artist to live and work on the grounds of what is now Guild Park.Sara explains what her mother did as the Guild’s resident artist, from the early 1970s to 1995.

During that period, Elizabeth Fraser Williamson continued the legacy of the Guild of All Arts, a unique artists community launched on the site in 1932 by art patrons, Rosa and Spencer Clark. A commemorative plaque about the artist is found near Guild Park’s pioneer log cabin, in the south section of the park.

The City of Toronto owns almost 200 piece of Elizabeth Fraser Williamson’s work, most of which have remained in storage for more than 15 years since the artist’s death.

Sara has started a petition requesting City of Toronto officials to begin publicly displaying her rmother’s art, because it reflects “the vibrant heritage of Scarborough’s art community.”

Guild Park’s new Clark Centre for the Arts, scheduled to open in 2020, is an ideal location to showcase Elizabeth Fraser Williamson’s art. These works would make an appropriate rotating ehibition along the the artists’ studios and public art space in that structure.

Thanks go to Ulrik Westergaard, video blogger of the popular Guildwoodian site for producing this video, shot July 29, 2018. You can keep posted about Guildwood Village news and notable people by visiting facebook.com/guildwoodian” – John Mason, President of Friends of Guild Park